Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
Sasken, a communication software company based in India, provides research and development support to leading wireless device vendors from its offshore centres in India in an intellectual property-oriented product and services space. Sasken has faced a number of challenges in building an advanced multimedia player for high-end mobile handsets for the Japanese market. The Japanese market is one of the most advanced in the mobile services it offers, and is well ahead of the rest of the world in terms of handset functions and features. Located in an offshore centre far away from the target market, in a country where the mobile industry is still evolving, the Sasken project team faced a number of challenges in building a technology-intensive product according to its client's specific requirements. With high client expectations and norms regarding quality, completeness of the product and timeliness of delivery, the Sasken project manager had to successfully manage evolving technical requirements for the product from the company's offshore centre in Bangalore. Sasken's project team also had to cope with unavailability of tools and platforms, with communication and co-ordination challenges, and with cultural differences that were typical of offshore product development. This case illustrates how having clarity on product features, following a suitable process orientation, adhering to quality and timeline expectations, effectively dealing with a distributed team setup, and managing cross-cultural issues are important pre-requisites for success in offshore software development.
Swot Analysis of "Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience" written by Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sasken Offshore facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Project management, Technology and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sasken Offshore, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sasken Offshore operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sasken Offshore
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sasken Offshore
Strengths Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sasken Offshore in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sasken Offshore in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sasken Offshore to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sasken Offshore to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Sasken Offshore has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sasken Offshore to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sasken Offshore has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Sasken Offshore is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sasken Offshore has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sasken Offshore digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sasken Offshore has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Organizational Resilience of Sasken Offshore
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sasken Offshore does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Sasken Offshore is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sasken Offshore has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sasken Offshore has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sasken Offshore is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Learning organization
- Sasken Offshore is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Sasken Offshore is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sasken Offshore has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Sasken Offshore even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Varadharajan Sridhar, Selvaraj Vadivelu suggests that, Sasken Offshore is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sasken Offshore needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sasken Offshore products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sasken Offshore needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Sasken Offshore has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sasken Offshore is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sasken Offshore is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sasken Offshore 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sasken Offshore is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Sasken Offshore needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sasken Offshore to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Sasken Offshore has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Opportunities Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Sasken Offshore to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sasken Offshore is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sasken Offshore can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sasken Offshore can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sasken Offshore can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Sasken Offshore has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sasken Offshore can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sasken Offshore has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sasken Offshore to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience case study. Sasken Offshore can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the consumer business. Now Sasken Offshore can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sasken Offshore can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sasken Offshore to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sasken Offshore can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Threats Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience are -
Environmental challenges
– Sasken Offshore needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Sasken Offshore can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience, Sasken Offshore may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sasken Offshore has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sasken Offshore needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Sasken Offshore.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Sasken Offshore will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sasken Offshore can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sasken Offshore is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sasken Offshore in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Sasken Offshore business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sasken Offshore demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sasken Offshore can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Sasken Offshore needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Sasken Offshore needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Challenges in Developing Products for an Advanced Mobile Market: Sasken's Experience